Work was really really stressful the week before the wedding. Like mental breakdown, Monica is a raging crazy person, almost crying in front of your boss kind of stressful. I've never been so relieved for a vacation in my life. I just had to get through the wedding and we were home free to the lovely St. Lucia.
Thursday started off with my last kickboxing workout pre-wedding. I seriously think that kickboxing is what keeps me sane (and helped me to fit into my size-too-small wedding dress). Bart and I finished up a bunch of errands and had a lovely dinner at Kai Zan - our favorite sushi restaurant. Here is my last chance workout:
Friday we headed out to Grayslake to decorate. I decided the only people I wanted to help that day was Mom, Joe and Bart - that way if I turned into a crazy lunatic bridezilla, the people that were around me would love me no matter what. We got the entire barn decorated in about 4 hours. Mom, Joe and Bart hung all the lights - Bart learned a couple of new things about how many lights you can string together and if you step on a bulb it will break. I decorated all of the tables. We had a few vendors stop in and all in all it went really smoothly. We celebrated our decorating success with lunch and a couple drinks before we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the rehearsal. Some decorating pics:
The tables pre-flowers
Our sweetheart table
Having a wedding in December, you always worry a little about the weather. Our guests from Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois had no issues making it there. However, the people from Texas and Missouri (all 5 of which were a part of the wedding) had trouble getting in. So my cousins, brother, sister-in-law and nephew were a TBD. Also, our vocalist, my sweet friend Leah had just finished her treatments the Monday before and was having a hard time finding a ride. I wasn't sure who was all going to make it and who wasn't. I'm really proud to say that the first ones to arrive were the GROOMSMEN - who knew?!?! Also - we had a little time before everyone got there with our officiant and good friend, Izik, to work through the little details. People started to arrive and we were ready to rehearse. I was good going through the schedule and where everyone was supposed to be and when (don't worry I had binders or handouts for each person and extra copies for the rooms - I mean I would have tattooed the schedule on everyone's wrist if they would have let me).
Then it came time to walk down the aisle. My big brother was walking me down the aisle and if you were paying attention you would have noticed that he was still TBD. I can't begin to explain the feeling of walking down that aisle alone at the rehearsal. I know brides do it all the time, and you can call me weak, but walking down that aisle by myself was the worst feeling ever - I just kept thinking I can't do this tomorrow - Josh HAS to be here - what am I going to do - I can't do this myself. On top of that I got a lot of "slow down, do it again, you have to stop here, pause there, etc etc etc. Then my sweet friend Leah - how do I begin to explain this part of the story? Leah has one of those voices that you hear and it immediately brings tears to your eyes. And she sang... LORD did she sing... (oh did I mention that she made it?) Knowing everything she has been through this year and what she went through to get there - it was sooo overwhelming. So I headed towards the back for my second attempt down that aisle (I made my step dad, Joe, stand in this time) and I just lost it. Uncontrollably crying, sobbing, can't stand up or breathe crying. After that little meltdown - we finished and went to dinner. Half way through dinner my brother, nephew and SIL walked in the door. 10,000 lbs of weight was lifted and I could breathe again.
We headed back to the hotel and my MOH Crissy and I spent the night in my room. This is our little tradition - the night before her wedding we did the same thing. Crissy is my forever friend. We have been friends our whole lives and will be for the rest of our lives - she is the bestest friend I could ever have.
The morning of the wedding we got up and headed to the salon where we spent WAY too many hours getting our hair and make up done. It was so great to have Mom, Crissy and Alice with me - they kept my champagne glass full and kept me entertained. Everyone looked beautiful!
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Before
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After
Loved the last minute up-lighting decision!
We got back to the hotel to get ready - our awesome photographer arrived and he took pictures of our dresses. It was all pretty chill and I was surrounded by my Mom, bridesmaids and Lauren. Everyone just wanted to take care of everything and make it easy. People usually have one dramatic story from their wedding day - we really didn't. Everyone was just kind of awesome. And again...the groomsmen were exactly where they were supposed to be on time and sober!
We had our "first look" coming off the elevator - its was kind of weird, at first I was really disappointed because it was supposed to be just us but then I saw Bart (who looked AMAZING) and he was completely tearing up. It was adorable and again pretty weird b/c there were like 20 people staring at us. I was really nervous about Bart liking my dress - we were watching TV one day and he goes "I hate those big poofy wedding dresses"... well.. mine was pretty large and in charge. But he said it was the perfect Monica dress so all was wonderful.
The bridal party loaded into the limo and we drove around taking pictures. Everyone was in good spirits - we got some good pictures, froze our asses off and make a stop to get some rumchatta for wedding party shots.
We got to the barn and the bridal party went to line up - Josh and I stayed in the limo. If you refer back to the day prior where I was a MESS walking down that aisle, this was the exact opposite. We were laughing and making fun of people (not you I promise). Walking down the aisle was fun and relaxed and exactly how I wanted it. My big brother will never stop being there for me - it continued on my wedding day.
The vows... oh the vows... We had worked with Izik on our vows and they couldn't have been more perfect. Izik had such a fun and calming demeanor that just made it so easy. Sweet Anna did a great job with her reading. I got to the last line of my last vow and Bart started tearing up again, then of course I started tearing up... I got that lump in my throat where anything you say next is going to come out weird - Izik handed us both tissues and we took a minute to compose ourselves. As I got ready to speak all I could do is say "I'm going to squeak" well I had a microphone in front of me so people found that a little humorous. But it broke the ice so I could finish my "I promise to make you proud". We kissed and were officially husband and wife. Oh and Ms. Leah and her singing - I literally had to block her out to not cry. My one regret - not getting someone to video the ceremony :-(.
The reception was amazing - the best party I've ever thrown. My mom, MOH, Best man and FIL made speeches that were amazing - that's always my favorite part of the wedding b/c typically the best man crushes the speech, but ours did wonderful. I danced all night long and shook my "bustle booty". My friend James brought me a glass of wine every time he went and got a beer - I was soooo thirsty from all the dancing that they went down so easy... maybe too easy. Lots of wine and not a lot of food make for an interesting combination. The music was awesome - the photo booth was a big hit (I could write a blog on that alone), the only thing that pissed me off was the bartender (I could also write an entire blog on that).
This is my favorite picture of the cousins. I'm so so so happy they all made it to celebrate with us. These are some of my favorite people in the universe.
One of the best parts of the day was Bart and I went back to the hotel room and talked for about two hours and just rehashed every moment of the day. I'm so freaking excited to have him as my husband and to be his wife. He is my best friend and the man I want forever with. I'm the lucky one!
I couldn't talk about our wedding day if I didn't mention my parents. I can't even begin to thank Mom and Joe enough for everything they did for us. The entire wedding wouldn't have been as special or fun or as amazing without them. Everything from making signs, to making table runners. to decorating, planning every single detail, the family meetings over budgets, listening to me review every single detail again 100x until it felt like the right plate or candle or set of lights... Thank you Mom and Joe! Best. Party. Ever.
Thanks for hanging in there until the end. I'm sure I'll remember 100 little things that I wished I would have added. Cheers to the next 75 years!!
